Grant Marcus Photography

Life in the Mica pride

The Mica pride consists of eleven lions including the two new cubs called the jabulani youngsters. When you follow lions thru the bush it can get interesting or be very boring. This specific morning we followed the whole pride as they were strolling down the road then all of a sudden they all turned off the road with their noses on the ground as if they knew there was something. Lion’s sense of smell are extraordinary. The one young male weired of to the right and picked up a leg from a zebra. It was probably a leopard kill from the previous night.

The young male chewed on the leg for a while then got bored.There were some giraffes in the distant also checking out the lions every move. They kept their eyes on them until every lion was laying in the shade. All the lions went into the shade with the cubs that followed. They spent the whole day under that specific tree. I drove around and waited for the cubs to come and join the Mica female where she refused to let them drink.

It got to this point where she needs to ween them from the milk. They don’t think it is a good idea at all. After taking some photos we left them and arrived back there in the afternoon after 16:00. They were all lying there wide awake and there was quite a bit of mutual grooming going on.

Eventually one of the females got up and got into hunting mode. We could see the pride was very hungry and had not had a meal in a few days.

just as we thought they are all getting up she went down again in the shade of the vehicle. She wasn’t down for too long before she got up for real this time. As she disappeared one of the young males got up as well and one of the Jabulani’s followed him. As I looked behind the vehicle one of the Jabulani’s was on the throat of the young male and was in the mood for playing. Its amazing how the younger lions tolerate the cubs with their impeccable timing for fooling around.